Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
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How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Make the Most Confusing Sound Setup Ever
Sure, you live Wing Commander... but do you love it five soundcards worth? Here's my incredibly complicated and overly-expensive solution to getting every WC's sound to work absolutely just right.
Windows 98
All sound effects and music for Win9x games comes from a SoundBlaster Live 5.1. A cable goes from the digital-out of the SoundBlaster Live to the speakers. There is one exception: the Wing Commander IV DVD FMV sound is generated by a REALMagic Hollywood Plus DVD decoder card. A 1/8" to 1/8" cable goes from the line-out of the RealMagic to the line-in of the Live 5.1. To make the game sound slightly different, I've ported the Wing Commander Prophecy 'sound font' from LiveWare 1.0 to the more recent Live Settings. Because it's a PCI card, DOS will ignore the Live 5.1. I manually disabled all of the 'auto-detected' ISA sound cards in Windows.
DOS 6.22
Music for Wing Commander, Wing Commander II and Academy is generated by a Roland LAPC-I. The LAPC-I is hard-wired to be at IRQ 9/port 330. A 1/8" to dual-RCA cable goes from the line-out of the LAPC-I to the input of a three-way RCA audio switch (from Radio Shack).
Music for Privateer, Privateer 2 and Armada is generated by a Roland SC-55 external MIDI module. The SC-55 connects to the LAPC-I via a Roland MCB-1 breakout box and therefore shares Port 330 (Privateer absolutely cannot play MIDI music on any other port). A RCA to RCA cable goes from the RCA output of the SC-55 to the RCCA input of the three-way audio switch. The SC-55 was chosen as it has additional drum sounds which Privateer takes advantage of. When a game plays music at Port 330, both the LAPC and the SC-55 will generate sounds... the switchbox lets you pick which will enter the SoundBlaster's line-in!
Both sound effects and music for Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV are generated by a Roland RAP-10. I've put the RAP-10 (via jumpers) at IRQ 11/port 340. A 1/8" to dual-RCA cable goes from the line-out of the RAP-10 to the input of a three-way RCA audio switch. The RAP-10 has enhanced audio for Wing Commander III and IV, although supports practically nothing else (game-wise, at least).
Sound effects for every game but Wing Commander III and IV is provided by a Creative Labs SoundBlaster 32 AWE. The three-way RCA switch's RCA-out connects to the line-in on the SB32. The SB32's line-out connects to the analog-in on the speakers. Install the Creative Labs PnP DOS software and be sure to disable the MIDI emulation. Set the Soundblaster to IRQ 5, Port 220 and DMA 1 (this last one is *necessary* for Wing 2 to work properly!).
What You'll Need...
- Creative Labs SoundBlaster!Live 5.1 (PCI)
- RealMagic Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder (PCI)
- Creative Labs SoundBlaster 32 AWE (ISA)
- Roland RAP-10 (ISA)
- Roland LAPC-I (ISA)
- Roland SC-55 (External)
- 1/8" to RCA audio cables (3)
- RCA to RCA audio cable
- 1/8" to 1/8" audio cable
- Roland MCB-1 Breakout Box
- 5-pin to 5-pin MIDI cable
- Three-Way RCA Audio Switch Box
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Make the Most Confusing Sound Setup Ever
Sure, you live Wing Commander... but do you love it five soundcards worth? Here's my incredibly complicated and overly-expensive solution to getting every WC's sound to work absolutely just right.
Windows 98
All sound effects and music for Win9x games comes from a SoundBlaster Live 5.1. A cable goes from the digital-out of the SoundBlaster Live to the speakers. There is one exception: the Wing Commander IV DVD FMV sound is generated by a REALMagic Hollywood Plus DVD decoder card. A 1/8" to 1/8" cable goes from the line-out of the RealMagic to the line-in of the Live 5.1. To make the game sound slightly different, I've ported the Wing Commander Prophecy 'sound font' from LiveWare 1.0 to the more recent Live Settings. Because it's a PCI card, DOS will ignore the Live 5.1. I manually disabled all of the 'auto-detected' ISA sound cards in Windows.
DOS 6.22
Music for Wing Commander, Wing Commander II and Academy is generated by a Roland LAPC-I. The LAPC-I is hard-wired to be at IRQ 9/port 330. A 1/8" to dual-RCA cable goes from the line-out of the LAPC-I to the input of a three-way RCA audio switch (from Radio Shack).
Music for Privateer, Privateer 2 and Armada is generated by a Roland SC-55 external MIDI module. The SC-55 connects to the LAPC-I via a Roland MCB-1 breakout box and therefore shares Port 330 (Privateer absolutely cannot play MIDI music on any other port). A RCA to RCA cable goes from the RCA output of the SC-55 to the RCCA input of the three-way audio switch. The SC-55 was chosen as it has additional drum sounds which Privateer takes advantage of. When a game plays music at Port 330, both the LAPC and the SC-55 will generate sounds... the switchbox lets you pick which will enter the SoundBlaster's line-in!
Both sound effects and music for Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV are generated by a Roland RAP-10. I've put the RAP-10 (via jumpers) at IRQ 11/port 340. A 1/8" to dual-RCA cable goes from the line-out of the RAP-10 to the input of a three-way RCA audio switch. The RAP-10 has enhanced audio for Wing Commander III and IV, although supports practically nothing else (game-wise, at least).
Sound effects for every game but Wing Commander III and IV is provided by a Creative Labs SoundBlaster 32 AWE. The three-way RCA switch's RCA-out connects to the line-in on the SB32. The SB32's line-out connects to the analog-in on the speakers. Install the Creative Labs PnP DOS software and be sure to disable the MIDI emulation. Set the Soundblaster to IRQ 5, Port 220 and DMA 1 (this last one is *necessary* for Wing 2 to work properly!).
What You'll Need...
- Creative Labs SoundBlaster!Live 5.1 (PCI)
- RealMagic Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder (PCI)
- Creative Labs SoundBlaster 32 AWE (ISA)
- Roland RAP-10 (ISA)
- Roland LAPC-I (ISA)
- Roland SC-55 (External)
- 1/8" to RCA audio cables (3)
- RCA to RCA audio cable
- 1/8" to 1/8" audio cable
- Roland MCB-1 Breakout Box
- 5-pin to 5-pin MIDI cable
- Three-Way RCA Audio Switch Box